Mears Group takes on new Ford Transit Connect

Deliveries of the new Ford Transit Connect van have begun to Mears Group – a major care services provider – which is receiving its first 100 new Fords this month.

The new Ford Transit Connect and Ford Transit Custom were key models helping to secure a five-year contract with Mears, with Ford supplying up to 1,000 light commercial vehicles a year. The Gloucester-based company expanded its fleet last year and now manages 4,300 vans and 700 cars nationwide.

Mears Group asset manager, Jo Hammonds, said: “The new Ford Transit Connect’s fresh styling, greater load space, better economy, emissions and whole-life costs are the factors which make it a very attractive prospect for us.”

Mears’s vans are used by the company’s 16,000-strong workforce to provide response and planned maintenance services to local authorities and registered social landlords, delivering 6,000 repairs a day to a portfolio of nearly one million properties.

Steve Davis, Ford’s fleet operations business manager, said: "Confirming this new contract with Mears, a long-established Ford customer, is brilliant news.

"They are among the first to take delivery of the all-new Transit Connect – a vehicle I feel sure drivers will appreciate with its superior ride and handling, improved practicality and lower fuel costs. On top of that, this order should see a significant reduction in other costs running these new Fords for Mears Group.”